Shakespeare's House - A Window onto his Life and Legacy

In the wide realm of Shakespeare worship, the house in Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 - known colloquially as the ''Birthplace'' - remains the chief shrine. It''s not as romantic as Anne Hathaway''s thatched cottage, it''s not where he wrote any of his plays, and there''s nothing inside the house that once belonged to Shakespeare himself. So why, for centuries, have people kept turning up on the doorstep? Richard Schoch answers that question by examining the history of the Birthplace and by exploring how its changing fortunes over the past four centuries perfectly mirror the changing attitudes toward Shakespeare himself.Based on original research in the archives of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and featuring two black and white illustrated plate sections which draw on the wide array of material available at the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum, this book traces the history of Shakespeare''s birthplace over four centuries. Beginning in the 1560s, when Shakespeare was born there, it ends in the 1890s, when the house was rescued from private purchase and turned into the Shakespeare monument that it remains today.>

List of contents

List of Illustrations

Prologue

Part I: Shakespeare and the World

1. On the Right Hand of Avon
2. To Be Wise in Building a House
3. Epitome of the Whole World
4. Household Stuff

Part II: The World and Shakespeare

5. Thy Stratford Monument
6. Our Shakespeare's House
7. A Marvellous Convenient Place
8. Birth of the Birthplace
9. Cottage of Humility
10. This House for Sale
11. Snatched from Quick Decay
12. Restoring Shakespeare
13. W.S.

Epilogue: 'Memorials of the Marvellous Man'

Bibliographic Essay

Acknowledgements

Index

Report

Schoch has a gift for archival details and their complement: anecdotes and traditions . [A] page-turning story, which takes us skilfully from Elizabethan houses in general to these two Shakespeare houses in particular. Laurie Maguire Times Literary Supplement

Product details

• Authors: Richard Schoch
• Publisher: Arden shakespeare
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 02.11.2023
• EAN: 9781350409354
• ISBN: 978-1-350-40935-4
• No. of pages: 200
• Dimensions: 170 mm x 242 mm x 21 mm
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures, Stratford-upon-Avon, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism, ARCHITECTURE / History / Renaissance, Biography: arts & entertainment, British & Irish history, Social and cultural history, History of Architecture, Architecture: residential and domestic buildings, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Relating to Shakespeare / Shakespearean